Back from the dead
Time to dust off your Dreamcast – again! After the original release date of 2011 came and went the Dreamcast horizontal shooter Sturmwind by Redspot Games is now back from the dead. It was given a release date of 24th April 2013 last week. The preview footage looks awesome. From what I’ve seen it looks very reminiscent of Pulstar on the Neo-Geo.

If it’s half as good as that I’ll be very happy. You can order it off the Redspot website or from Play-Asia.com. I’ve just pre-ordered mine from Play-Asia for the not unreasonable $39.90 (£26.78) and anything over $25 has a free economy shipping option to the UK. Can’t wait.GunslingaNinja

Instant success
I was wondering if GC or the readers could answer a question I have, what is more important to publishers when choosing whether or not to make a sequel? Sales in the first few weeks or lifetime sales? Does it have to be successful sales wise straight away when it is full price for publishers to consider funding a sequel or would they account for the sales when it has been discounted?Kurt Lewin

GC: There’s no set rule, but as you imply if it’s only successful over a longer period of time that suggests people are only buying it when it’s cheap – and therefore that its appeal may be limited.

Mystery aversion
Whilst I agree in sentiment with your response to my email earlier, that Western developers never have and never will adopt portable consoles, I’m not sure I understand the logic… And that is where my initial point came from…. why is that they won’t!?

To take this a step further, the likes of PopCap (a Western developer and there are many like them) have produced great products based on portable media (phones), yet why is there is seemingly no-one doing the same for consoles…. Sorry I just don’t understand it.

I’ll give my own view for what it’s worth, and that that Western developers are now seemingly caught up in a perpetual cycle of always feeling the need to push boundaries of graphical power rather than being led by creative direction (and an element of being risk adverse)… Which unfortunately will lead to a market collapse eventually.

A lack of creativity has been the main reason over the last few years why I find fewer titles attractive… I’ve been gaming a long time (I’m mid 40s) and the main attraction of my hobby from what were arcade experiences of the ‘80s was the total suspension of belief that games give and that no other media can, yet games move ever closer to reality.

Now don’t get me wrong I like well-produced blockbuster games like Modern Warfare, but I also want things I never knew I wanted, things that spark an interest, things that intrigue… and these are getting fewer and fewer and a console with a large userbase and with lower development costs appears to be the place it should be happening.Birdmanrob (PSN ID)

GC: We don’t understand it either. We’ve brought it up numerous times with developers and publishers, but all they ever do is look shifty and make a vain attempt to pretend it’s not true. Like you our assumption has always been that part of the problem is that most Western developers don’t like working on less powerful hardware, but that’s also always denied.

Not my problem
The big Inbox topic at the moment is the price of games, someone said something about shareholders and what have you but the point is if these companies can’t run themselves efficiently, how is that my or any other consumers problem? It isn’t.

I wouldn’t have any issue with next gen games going up in price to £50 or £60 I was paying that for a lot of SNES games years ago, so I think a price increase is fully justified given how much more complicated games are today. I’m more than happy to pay a fair price for a quality game, but anti-second-hand tech is anti-consumer, it’s about the publisher having total control over their games.

Rather than punish consumers, some of whom have been buying their product for years, I’d rather see the publishers come to some sort of arrangement with GAME, CEX, and all the other companies that make a lot of money from second-hand sales, surely that would be fair? Royalties are paid when a song is on the radio so why not something similar for every second-hand sale?mitchell

Restart the cycle
Recently a lot of readers have been saying that they won’t be investing in the next gen straight away due to size of their backlogs to keep them going. I argue however that (if they can afford it) the temptation will be too much because otherwise how would they have accumulated a backlog without by new games they don’t actually need but have still bought them?Kurt Lewin
PS: Totally agree with PjDonnelli, companies have a legal obligation to make more for their shareholders.

The glorious few
RE: The Good Old Days readers feature. I pretty much agree with the sentiment about modern games and consoles. Many console games have become derivative, soulless affairs that lack character and chase big money, such as Dead Space 3, Tomb Raider, Assassin’s Creed III, military shooters, and more besides. And the next gen just seems more of the same. Now we’ve seen a little more gameplay of Watch Dogs, for example, at heart is it really any different from the basic mechanics of Assassin’s Creed (eavesdropping on conversations, helping people in distress on the street, stealthy infiltration, doing a runner to evade pursuit) or even Grand Theft Auto?

I, for one, am tired of the same old ideas, of endless mindless shooting shoehorned into the latest adventure and horror games. And did we really need Gears Of War: Judgment? The series was becoming stale during the third instalment, and for me was the final word on the series. CliffyB was right to call it a day and move on.

At least there’s been some fresh ideas in console games, such as BioShock Infinite and Dishonored, and by fresh I mean as the kind of games you don’t see too often now (Infinite being a sequel, and Dishonored being influenced by the likes of BioShock and Thief). But these are few and far between.Jon Edwards

Thank god for teraflops
This letter isn’t meant to be a late entry for this week’s Hot Topic, although it was prompted by it and Steve Richardson’s Reader Feature, The Good Old Days.

Many readers will have gathered by now that I have a certain fondness for the Souls games and reading Steve’s article reminded me that I had a copy of King’s Field on PlayStation in my collection. As many people will know King’s Field is supposed to be the precursor of the Souls games, so I decided to give it another go in the hope that I would get further with it than the first time I played it.

Well, I didn’t, not just because it’s hard but because using only the directional buttons to move around was like wading through treacle and the less said about the graphics the better. These were, quite frankly, awful, even for an early(ish) PlayStation game. Like Manic Miner with the lights off. After being zapped for the umpteenth time by a square octopus thingy and drowning yet again in a lake seemingly composed of concrete blocks, I gave up and returned with relief to Kingdoms Of Amalur, a place no less fantastical but much more entertaining and a darn sight easier to get around.

My point is this. I freely admit that I am a complete mollywop where tech specs are concerned. I haven’t a clue what a teraflop is nor do I care but I’m awfully glad they exist, along with all the other bells and whistles that go to make gaming what it is today.Gill C.

Keeping the past alive
Regarding the guy who feels disillusioned with modern gaming in your weekend Reader’s Feature, I too have felt annoyed at the way it has evolved over the past ten years. Endless shooters and driving games are just about all I could take.

Like him I too own a lot of retro consoles and games, although due to space limitations a lot of them are packed away – I only ever use my Mega Drive and Nintendo 64 (and MAME, although that’s not mine) at any time. There’s a lot to be said for games like GoldenEye and Sonic The Hedgehog, but nothing I could say about them would be different from what other people would say, i.e. that they are classics that anybody should play.

I am also intrigued by the RetroN 5 that one of your readers spoke about – I think a console with emulation features and multi-cartridge compatibility would make a modest killing among the retro gaming community, providing that it actually does what it promises (not all clone consoles do, sadly – I was unlucky enough to buy that Sega-branded Mega Drive console from Argos… man, what a mistake!)

If only Hyperkin were more forthcoming with details, then we would be more informed as to the nature of the beast. (And indeed if it would be released in Europe…) But anyway, I have said my piece and bid you all farewell. Thanks for reading.RoadBlaster
PS: I also think arcade games should be made ‘public domain’ due to the fact arcades no longer exist in the West in their classic form, but that’s a whole other story.

Getting it backwards
RE: The reverse difficulty curve Reader Feature. Surely it’s as simple as different games requiring different forms of challenges? A few of the games Alistair cited were also, for me, strange and poor examples. The Mass Effect trilogy has surely never really been known for its combat; it’s primarily just there to structure the narrative. A game’s difficulty balance is primarily defined by an IP’s focus, and in Mass Effect the focus was clearly characterisation and narrative flow (I’ve never come across anyone who played the series for the combat).

XCOM: Enemy Unknown also doesn’t seem like a good game whose difficulty curve (on normal or above) can be questioned. It takes time and effort to get to the point where you can really dish out the hurt to the aliens. Isn’t that just good game design? Later on Enemy Unknown perhaps feels ‘easier’ simply because you’ve learnt how to effectively counter what the [nastier and more numerous] aliens are throwing at you.

Personally, I also prefer that curve of progression (I actually think Enemy Unknown’s difficulty curve is close to flawless), especially where role-playing games are concerned. In Morrowind you were a walking one-hit kill for many enemies for a good few hours. It takes time, effort, and patience to get the point where the tables are finally turned. Then? Then you can unleash hell…

Games that rely on actual input skill and/or good knowledge of gameplay mechanics (e.g. third person brawlers or 2D beat ‘em-ups) make sense to start out relatively easy and get increasingly harder. Other genres like real-time strategy usually have a natural easy-then-complex/harder arc. In terms of design trends I think the industries just tailoring the experience per genre and IP, which makes perfect sense.Spanishcat (gamertag)

Inbox also-rans
Just finished BioShock Infinite, best game I’ve played in ages and I’ve only just thought that about Far Cry 3.bag80

I have the perfect system for games companies to make money out of second-hand games. They can buy shares in retail stores that sell pre-owned. Problem solved.EvilMoomin

I’m an original PS one Tomb Raider fan and nothing older gets me gripped in the game, the bosses are way too easy and finding/destroying things are too easy. Please increase level of difficulty!cmullerj

Best Capture The Flag game ever? Conker’s Bad Fur Day.Renaissance Man

This week’s Hot Topic
The subject for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Xane, who asks what is your favourite sound effect in a video game or made by a console?

Ignoring music entirely what’s your favourite sound and why? Is it because you just like the noise itself or is it what the sound means or is alerting you too? Is nostalgia a part of why you like it and has the sound been used often, as part of a long-running franchise?

How important is sound design to a good game and which titles do you think have the best overall use of sound? Do you use your favourite sounds anywhere else, such as ringtones or alerts on your phone? And do you have a least favourite sound, and why?